Cat triggers 24-hour blackout in Delhi

It was a power cut that seemed never-ending. Several areas in Delhi, India had to endure a power cut that lasted more than 24 hours on Saturday after a cat was electrocuted at the BSES grid station in Kondli and the ensuing fire caused damage to the system.

According to a BSES spokesperson, a cat jumped into the 66-kV Kondli sub-station late on Friday night and was electrocuted by an 11-kV outgoing panel. “The cat must have been wet. When it got electrocuted, some sparks caused a fire that ended up damaging multiple panels. This led to a power cut in the area.”

While the company said changing the damaged panels was a “time consuming process”, power department officials blamed BSES for not making adequate arrangements to back feed the area and make supply power from alternate sources.

“There has been no electricity since late last [Friday] night. Even the inverter stopped working after a couple of hours. The BSES helpline said the supply will resume by noon, but no such thing happened. It has been a horrible day for us,” said a resident of East End Apartment in Mayur Vihar.